


light through the green

by kimaracretak



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Southern Reach Fusion, Gen, Implied Character Death, Meadows That Want To Eat You
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21742537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: Commander Spock tries to use Area X to remove certain undesirable elements from his ship. Area X, and Nyota Uhura, have other plans.
Relationships: Mirror Spock & Mirror Nyota Uhura
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7
Collections: Writing Rainbow Green





	light through the green

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/gifts).



> I saw the sky flooding light through the greens,  
> like knives running straight through the heart of these scenes.  
> And these old cold stones are calling to me.

The meadow spills out above them in an abrupt shock of clear empty space, the blue sky a dizzying climb into a space beyond anything Nyota cares to think about. Her gaze caught somewhere in the blank vanishing point of the sea of grass, she stumbles over a loose rock and halfway catches herself on one of the last remaining tree trunks - thinner, weak, bending under her grip.

"Careless," Commander Spock says. There's not a hint of malice in his voice, simply cold observation, and Nyota adds it to the list that she's been carefully compiling of reasons why she hates him. Just one more reason things would have been better had she been in charge to start with: an expedition without a linguist at its head should have been unthinkable.

Not that they were a traditional expedition, more a collection of Commander Spock's undesirables that Starfleet had decided weren't worth the effort to protect, but still. It was the principle of the thing. The fact that she ought to have been in charge of the Enterprise by this point as well was just an additional annoyance.

"I don't see you having found us a magical way out of here, Mr Spock." It's a wonderful thought, that she can say whatever she likes to him and not have to worry about disappearing in an instant.

Of course, the rest of their makeshift away team had vanished quite quickly, but that hadn't been Spock's doing. The Tantalus Field that she wasn't supposed to know about doesn't work down here, no more than communicators or tricorders. The knife at her belt has already served them well against paths crowded with branches and the local wildlife, including a deer with a face rather like Ensign ... Ensign -

Well, one of the Ensigns who she thought had been around for the beginning of this disaster. She hadn't planned on the flora on the other side of the Tantalus Field having a hunger to match her own, but her time in Starfleet had taught her nothing if not adaptability.

"To find a way out assumes we have walked inside something," Commander Spock is saying at her side. She's sure his curiosity has him itching to walk forward, but for all his newfound peacefulness, he's not entirely stupid: she hasn't seen his back in hours. "And as the sky above makes quite clear, we are neither inside, nor hemmed in, nor ..."

He continues talking, trying to logic his way out of the most illogical place Nyota has ever seen as she unsheathes her knife and flicks a drop of blood from the blade. Strange, she thinks, it should have dried by now - but thinking back, she can't remember whose blood it is. She shrugs to herself as the blades of grass part around the blood before the tips bend back down towards the crimson puddle, animals looking for a drink.

She lets another blood drop fall, and the grass ripples in a nonexistent breeze as it marches towards her offering. How long until Mr Spock notices, until he realises that he is no longer the hungriest thing around?

It's almost a pity. They could have done such wonderful things together at the head of the empire. But he had to start agitating for not only an increase in funding for the science department but diverting funds from weapons, and then his sweet little Marlena had been susceptible enough to let slip the single rumour of a _device_ that the Commander, like Kirk before him, used to make his oh so convenient disappearances happen.

It was simple enough to provoke him to use the device on her: Mr Spock's logic had always been deft at pointing an arrow straight towards death. A little more difficult, to make sure that he himself was within the field's radius of effect, but far from impossible.

And then, well: the Commander had made his choice, too concerned with finding a way to leave her in this place to understand what this place wanted. And Nyota had always been good at talking to things with strange new voices; the green simply gave her the confirmation that she needed, that she was loved and Commander Spock's time was drawing to a rapid close.

The leaves are murmuring even now, an impatient rustle in the clear windless emptiness.

"Commander Spock," she finally interrupts, sweetly as she knows how. It's less sweet than it might once have been; the seeds between her teeth and the flowers itching to burst forth from under her tongue have sharpened her in ways even Starfleet couldn't.

He watches with narrow eyes as she faces him and steps back into the meadow, one step and then two, swallowed up to the top of her boots with every step. "Where are you going, Lieutenant?"

"Why, I've found a path."

It won't take much. It shouldn't take much. The ground is soaked with last night's rain, with the bones of creatures more alien than Nyota had ever seen in space.

"A path to what?" But he steps forwards anyway, and she sees the realisation in his face - that the ground is too soft, the grass too constricting around his ankles. By then it's too late.

Nyota doesn't bother to watch as the ants and branches get to work. Whatever they send Mr Spock back as will be much nicer than the man she left behind. "Bring him to the stones," she says, and knows without needing to know that the land will obey: her words are all she needs to make anything here real. "I'll need the help of what he becomes."

But she does smile as, all around her, the light whispers: time to begin.


End file.
